My contractor friend bought the same bits from a different source. They are pretty bad-may be OK for wood though. They failed bad on stainless sheet metal. The regular black China bits worked much better.
He buys the cheap stuff.

Recycled depleted uranium from Iraq….and Afghaniland….and Somalia….and ???. Only a merkin would be dumb enough to buy that. After the first of the year they’ll make it two for one and toss in a left handed crank orange peeler with L.E.D lighting.

-- What day is it ? No matter. Ummmm What month is it ? No moron. I paid for a 2 x 6. That means Two inches by six inches. I want the rest of my wood.

I have had good luck with Tool Shop drill bits and for that price you can’t go wrong. I bought a set that looks identical to that from Woodcraft a few years ago for about 30 bucks and have been thrilled with it.

I bought a very similar set about two years ago, but I cannot remember where. Mine is brad point and seemed to have a lot more bits in it. So far, it has been a fairly good set, save for one or two very small bits with too much runout. I think I paid around $29.

Thanks for the input everyone. With all the Chinese stuff being sold, I really try to pay less. I figure if the companies selling the products have little to no cost to produce, then I should find the best stuff being sold for the cheapest price, when buying imports. For some things, where a good quality American made product exists, I really lean in that direction.

garyprott – I agree about getting what you pay for, but sometimes you get a lot when you pay a lot less. It occurs in all kinds of markets. There is even a science behind pricing that basically says that when a product doesn’t sell and it’s a good deal, then raise the price and it sells. And it sells. My point is that quite often price is a poor indicator of quality.

I’ve purchased some cheap stuff from Harbor Freight. I picked up several packs of microfiber cloths from HF when on sale for $4.49 per dozen. Then I used a 20% off coupon good for the entire order (not just one item), resulting in a cost of $3.59 per dozen. Well, I have only had to open one pack and use two cloths (one for my wife and the other for me) in the two years that I’ve owned these amazing microfiber cloths. I’ve seen similar cloths sell for $6-$10 for a pack of three. I’ve also seen them sell for about $15 a piece through a tupperware style party. These were very inexpensive but not cheap on quality. And I got them at HF. I can say the same for HF's 12 gauge 25' extension cord, which I picked up for $11.99 each ($15.99 on sale plus 25% off coupon). Great deal! On the other hand, I did try the HF manual leveling rotary laser level. I had to use a spirit level on a mason line to set marks to calibrate this thing. The visibility of the laser line was pretty good. The variable speed worked fine. I got it for about $42 with coupon. But I didn’t want to hassle with manual leveling. I returned it and spent a lot more on a professional grade self-leveling unit and couldn’t be more delighted.

The above also applies to wine and spirits quite readily. Much of the best wine cost less than $10 per bottle. I do my research and aim for less than $5 per bottle. I even offer blind taste tests for guests at my home. More often than not, with a blind taste test, people pick the less expensive wines. There is a science behind selling wine that basically goes like this: fill a fancy looking bottle with cheaper wine, put a fancy label on it, and it will taste better. It does taste better primarily because the bottle and the label excite certain neurons in the brain, predisposing taste buds to enjoy the wine more, so it tastes better. Objectively, the wine is supposedly a less desirable wine.

I like to pay less if it’s a good product. Sometimes I pay more because the brand is pure quality. That’s why I’m thinking of buying a couple of Festool hand power tools.

Loco – if that left handed orange peeler had LED lighting I’d go for it. My wife is left handed and I would surely win points for being so thoughtful.

and here is says “Titanium nitride (TiN), having a hardness equivalent to sapphire and carborundum (9.0 on the Mohs Scale),[22] is often used to coat cutting tools, such as drill bits.[23] It also finds use as a gold-colored decorative finish, and as a barrier metal in semiconductor fabrication.[24] Titanium carbide, which is also very hard, is found in high-temperature cutting tools and coatings).”

-- "some old things are lovely, warm still with life ... of the forgotten men who made them." - D.H. Lawrence

At price points like that, drill bits are often made with pot metal then spray-painted to look like titanium, pot metal bits can work, but they’ll break very easily and you’ll be sharpening a lot, also the diameters are likely only relatively close to what they’re supposed to be. These are bits to buy if you shop entirely by price and ignore quality and accuracy completely. That being said, lots of people only buy the cheapest and still make holes in stuff. While I will agree that the quality difference on a set of drill bits for $8 and a set of drill bits for $13 is probably non-existent, they’re still both ultra-cheap and probably spray-painted pot metal. But the difference between a $13 set and a $100 set from a reputable brand is going to be huge. Price swings of a couple of bucks can be chalked up to marketing, but when it goes up drastically, it’s often because the materials are more expensive (and real) and the manufacturing processes are better.

I don’t want to sound like an elitist, but I would only buy these if I had no drill bits at all, no money, and needed some to tide me over until I could afford something good, like the 29-piece set from McFeely’s for $163 (made in usa). Yes they’re WAY more expensive, but the materials quality will be infinitely higher, the diameters will be perfect, and they’ll last a very long time.

It’s easy to get into the mindset of thinking that everything is made the same out of equal materials and price is the only differentiating factor (I call this Wall Mart Syndrome), but reality tells a very different story. Anytime you’re looking to buy something, ask someone who uses that same product type every day for their livelihood, and they’ll almost never tell you to buy the absolute cheapest thing you can get your hands on. For example, if you ask a mechanic what wrenches are good, they’ll tell you snap-on, or matco, or maybe craftsman, they’ll rarely say go to harbor freight and get the full set for $8, because they know they won’t last very long and they’ll be garbage right up until the moment they snap in half.

The bits are not titanium, but titanium nitride coated. The gold coating is titanium nitride. Guessing they are probably just some cheap carbon steel.

I assume some info is lost in translation and the people buying them think wow titanium that has to be good.

The titanium nitride coating is pretty decent for things like drill bits, but it is so cheap to do it has appeared on some very cheap bits in the last 15-20 years so it pretty much has lost all meaning. If you find a set that is Titanium Carbo Nitride coated, those are most likely very good bits, it doesn’t have the bling factor so probably won’t infiltrate cheap tools.

I appreciate all the feedback. I already own a very extensive set of quality cobalt bits that I use in the shop. I was mainly looking at this set as a rough it around set of bits but I didn’t really want to get them if they were just pure junk. It’s nice to have a set of descent up inexpensive bits in case the kids lose one or break one, etc.

I may just buy a set and give em a try. We’ll see. Thanks again everyone. I appreciate your input.